Podiatric Skin and Nail Involvement and Biomechanical Pathology in Renal Transplant Recipients: Assessment of the Foot as a Contributing Factor to Their Health

Abstract

Although several studies show the prevalence of podiatric conditions in people with end-stage renal disease or renal replacement therapy with hemodialysis, there is little scientific literature on this when subjects are undergoing kidney transplantation. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of podiatric skin and nail pathology in renal transplant recipients. A descriptive, observational, prevalence study was conducted at the Nephrology Department of the University Hospital of A Coruña. A total of 371 subjects were studied. The variables studied were sociodemographic (age, sex), anthropometric (Body Mass Index), comorbidity (Charlson Comorbidity Index), and podological (skin and nail alterations). A high presence of skin (83.1%) and nail pathology (85.4%) was observed, with hyperkeratosis (68.8%), onychogryphosis (39.4%), and onychocryptosis (36.9%) being the most predominant alterations. Although it was not significant, patients with a higher risk of presenting podiatric pathology were of female sex and had a high BMI, and both age and the Charlson comorbidity index were significantly associated with this risk. There was an increased risk of both skin and nail pathology at older age and in the presence of diabetes mellitus.